KPK detains Taufik Kurniawan as suspect in bribery case

Deputy House Speaker Taufik Kurniawan weans orange vest of KPK detainee after being grilled for nine hours by KPK investigators at the anti-graft agency office, Jakarta, on Friday (Nov 2).

Foto: Republika/Iman Firmansyah

Taufik Kurniawan was grilled for nine hours by KPK investigators.

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has detained Deputy House Speaker Taufik Kurniawan as suspect in in a bribery case. The National Mandate Party politician was sent to KPK Detention Center on Friday.

"TK (Taufik Kurniawan) will be detained for the next 20 days at detention center, KPK branch in KPK office Kav C-1," spokesperson KPK Febri Diansyah said at his office, Jakarta, on Friday.

Earlier, Taufik has met the summon of KPK on Friday morning. He was grilled for nine hours by KPK investigators.

Taufik wore an orange vest of KPK detainee when he left KPK office around 18.18 Western Indonesian Time.

"God's enginerring is the most perfect," he said to the reporters, adding that he would follow and respect existing legal process by KPK.

Taufik is implicated by Kebumen District Head Yahya Fuad in the alleged embezzlement of Special Allocation Fund for the Kebumen district. In his trial on July 2, 2018, Yahya, who was charged with corruption in the procurement of goods and service for the district administration in 2016, told the court he met with Taufik to discuss the allocation of the Special Allocation Fund (DAK).

The meeting took place in Semarang and Jakarta, Yahya, who was later convicted and is now serving a 4 year jail term with a fine of Rp300 million for graft in a number of projects, said there was an "obligation" of 5 percent to be paid to Taufik if the DAK, which was valued at Rp100 billion, already available.

The "fee" was given twice through a courier of Taufik in Semarang, Yahya told the court. Taufik, a lawmaker from the districts of Kebumen, Banjarnegara and Purbalingga in Central Java, allegedly received a total of Rp4.8 billion from the fee of 5 percent of Kebumen's DAK budget of around Rp106.067 billion in 2017.

PT Tradha, which is owned by Yahya is charged with money laundering by KPK. PT Tradha allegedly used five other companies to illegally win 8 projects in the district of Kebumen in 2016-2017 valued at Rp51 billion.

PT Tradha also was charged with accepting illegal fee from contractors for projects linked to the Kebumen district administration valued at Rp3 billion. For his role, Taufik is suspected violated Article 12 letter a or b or Article 11 Law No. 31/1999 as amended by Law No. 20/2001 on Eradication Corruption.